Abelard

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

Abelard, Peter or Pierre 1079-1142. French theologian, philosopher, and composer whose nominalist application of the principles of ancient Greek logic to the doctrines of the medieval Catholic Church led to charges of heresy. He had a love affair with his pupil Héloise, whom he secretly married after she bore him a child; her family was angered and had him castrated, after which he became a monk.

Examples

In the 12th century, writers such as Abelard and Alan of Lille composed dialogues, allegories, axiomatic works, disputations, and summae, but the next two centuries were dominated by the forms of commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences, various forms of the disputed question, and the summa.

However the name may have arisen, the famous scholar certainly adopted it very early in his career, and it went over into the vernacular as "Abelard" or "Abailard," though with a multiplicity of variations (in Villon's famous poem, for example, it appears as "Esbaillart").

After his affair and secret marriage to his lovely and intelligent student aroused the ire of her uncle, who had him castrated, Abelard moved to the Abbey of Saint-Denis, where he sought to lead the life of a monk.

Carpers might object that Abelard, one of the most outspoken and controversial thinkers of his day, wasn't able to stay quiet, but was soon found out and began irritating people like Bernard of Clairvaux with his innovative inquiries once more.